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To see where we've come from through to
the operation,
that is state of the art in my mind,
it is something almost overwhelming.
Perseverance prevails
and we got through it.
It was very challenging, but it was a lot of fun.
On the bus everyday I still open my eyes when we get to the two minutes to the main event,
and look at it and go 'wow, we did this!'
Canadian Natural's Horizon Oil Sands Project produced its first oil on the
last day of February 2009.
A momentous day,
a day marking a world-class accomplishment, years in the making.
What's exciting about it is,
not so much where we are today, by the journey that we have taken to come up here.
A once-in-a-lifetime journey
full of adventure,
courage,
skilled and hearty people equaled outstanding commitment,
know-how
and ability.
Men, women and machinery working in remote regions against the unforgiving elements
in pursuit of opportunity,
prosperity, and economic and energy security for province and a nation.
We've done significant front-end planning,
and we've done a lot of effort also
to put this project together.
If I'm here today it's to invite you to be part of it.
This is a great great joint-venture... Canadian Natural is part of
this community.
We have now
several hundred people living in this community
Being here you know, part is being into the activities of this communities,
and so on. Being responsible for volunteering, participating into some organization,
some group, and so on.
This is the way Canadian Natural do business as well.
We have a great project,
and now this project is here for years and years to come.
Horizon is located 70 km north of Fort McMurray, Alberta.
Land leases containing about six to eight billion barrels of recoverable bitumen,
enough to sustain forty years of production.
The sun came up on Horizon in 2005
slowly at first,
but then in spectacular color
and sweeping brightness.
I originally joined
Canadian Natural Resources in 2002. I think I was employee
number 54.
In those early days I often wondered what I was getting myself into. It was
quite a large scale project, very complex.
More than 1,700 trades people were on the site by the end of
2005.
Almost 4 billion dollars worth of contracts had been awarded,
6.7 billion cubic meters of overburdened had been removed.
...and then you actually saw from the drawings and the model
something come up that was real, that matched the drawings
and the models.
it was really very magical. The hard-working magicians had completed 90% of Horizon
by 2007.
Colder weather, and a heated economy presented some tough challenges for productivity
and budgeting.
Putting the strategy together, - how are we going to come from nothing here
to a plant of this size: managing all of these contractors, independent firms, employees
and getting everybody to work together. We just have to make this happen in the most efficient way possible.
but experience paid off
and determination and excellence prevailed
We've been around here 42 years, built the original GCOS
now called Suncor.
Here I am at the Horizon site, CNRL. Twenty years in the business, it's a little cool, but we can adapt. haha, love it here!
By the end of 2008 almost all major components had been completed
and are now operational.
The immediate aim is to achieve full production capacity of 110,000 barrels a day.
Future phases start the production
of up to 500,000 barrels of synthetic crude oil day.
Great things are rarely
achieved alone
they are the products teamwork,
a legacy of hard work,
ingenuity, and innovation.
I've been privileged to work in a series of mines over my career,
and I will place the team that we have, in all facets of the operation, up against
any one of them.
I want to thank
and express
my profound gratitude
and appreciation for all of those people who worked
those cold, long, dark, hard nights
to bring this plant up, and to bring it up safely without injuring anyone.
Job well done. Thank you.
It's been a fantastic journey
to make it happen
and
on this I think we owe it to
the Canadian Natural employees.
And we have a great, great team
of people
so we definitely want to thank
Canadian Natural employees, and the contractors who've participated in this great adventure here,
for us all together.
The path to prosperity has been carved by the thousands of
pioneers and perfectionists who built this complex,
and the sun yet rises on the horizon.
In years to come
it will bear witness to new adventures and vast opportunity
founded on the contributions of accomplishments
of all those who made a remarkable journey
to first oil.